Why the walk is so important.

Dogs are migratory animals. Which is a fancy way of saying, naturally, they walk. A lot. Like so much they would put any of our step-counting goals to shame. In the wild, they would wake up and walk to find food. Then they would walk to a spot to rest. And then get up and walk back “home.” And in their group, there are two positions—a leader—The one who determines the best route to get food and then return safely, and the followers. Starting to see where I’m going with this?

When I first start working with a new client, one of my first questions is “how is your walk?” And while it may seem like a simple thing…it actually tells me a few important things and serves as a training “diagnostic tool.”

How the walk goes with a dog and their human gives me a glimpse into their relationship. If the dog is pulling in every direction, dragging their human to trees and other dogs, that tells me there’s a breakdown in respect. A dog that’s charging other dogs and humans can tell me there’s a breakdown in trust—they’re protecting themselves and their human because they don’t believe the human is capable of doing it.

Essentially in both of these scenarios, the human has assumed the “follower” position in their relationship, and as we can see, this lack of leadership can cause many issues (outside and inside the home.) And in either of the scenarios above, the walk becomes not so fun for the human and then guess what…not a lot of walks are happening. People try to make up for it by playing in the back yard to get some energy out, but they’re missing the migrating piece that fulfills a dog instinctually, and leads to more issues like frustration and destructive behavior/obnoxious barking, etc.

It’s no surprise that when I first starting working with clients, their walk is a hot mess. And no judgement happening here—that used to be me. But the good news is, we can quickly shift that and start to see improvements right away. We can build up trust and respect and start to see a “relaxing” of the dog that is no longer is carrying the burden of being in charge.

So get out there and walk. Then walk some more. And if you need help or guidance, reach out. I’m here to help.

My job is to provide direction and protection through calm, confident leadership. Their job is to follow. Instinctually fulfilling, the walk provides mental and physical exercise.